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The average price of a house in England and Wales fell by 0.8% during January and by 15.1% in the year to the end of the month, according to the latest figures from the Land Registry.
The official figures show the average house price now stands at £156,753, down almost £28,000 on January 2008's figure.
Land Registry, which analyses the actual prices paid for homes, said Wales suffered the largest price fall last month – dropping 8.8% – although it admitted the figure was skewed "due to the exceptionally small volume of sales so far recorded for the region in January".
However, it warned that average prices in the principality fell almost 20% during the whole of last year.
The figures, which controversially don't include any properties that are sold at auction, also show how much the property market has stagnated over the past 12 months.
In November last year the number of completed sales fell by 67% to 33,404 – down from more than 100,000 in November 2007.
In London, just 3,504 property sales were completed last November compared with 12,719 in November 2007 – a 72% fall. Average prices in London fell 14.1% last year to £306,183, it said.
The official figures confirm the latest estimated price falls published by the big lenders. Yesterday, Nationwide building society said the average price of a UK home had fallen by 17.6% over the past 12 months, dropping by more than £31,000 to £147,746. Prices are now 20% down on their October 2007 peak of £186,044.
The society said that despite swingeing interest rate cuts, which have reduced the Bank of England base rate to 1%, its lowest ever level, would-be buyers were still holding back.
Meanwhile, the Land Registry said January's price fall was the seventeenth month in a row where the annual rate of change has fallen, in contrast to 21 months of uninterrupted increases between December 2005 and August 2007.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "The Land Registry and Nationwide data reinforce our belief that the very surprising 1.9% month-on-month rise in house prices in January reported by the Halifax was an anomaly and house prices are still very much heading downwards
"While latest mortgage approvals data suggest that housing market activity may have bottomed out, and survey evidence indicates that buyer enquiries have picked up significantly as people are attracted by lower house prices and the Bank of England slashing interest rates, we are sceptical that sales will pick up substantially anytime soon and put a floor under prices."
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